Eliminating Impediments To Progress

 MORE THAN FIFTY THOUSAND BOOKS are published in the United States every year, many of them on paper, many not, many of which are rarely read and barely sell any copies, despite having intellectual or artistic merit. In America, having intellectual and artistic merit and popularity are two distinctly different qualities.Forty years ago, when computers were still as large as refrigerators with about as much computing power as your average head start student, I went out on a limb and predicted that there would soon come a time when paper books would cease to exist, and would be replaced by books on computer screens.It pleases me to know how wrong I was. Three recently published books merit mention. "Land: How the Hunger For Ownership Shaped the Modern World",  by Simon Winchester, traces is the right of any United states Senator, as long as he or she remains standing and does not stop talking, to talk his head off, as Jimmy Stewart pu t it. the origins of our modern attitudes about private land ownership since the advent of modern capitalism and industrialization. Less economically developed cultures of the past had a much less proprietary approach to land distribution and ownership. "Fantasyland" explores various trends in American culture and history which have contributed to our contemporary culture of misinformation , disinformation, denial of objective, verifiable reality, and our rampant culture of false conspiracy theories. Considering the abundance and pervasiveness of all these in today's society, any elucidation of the phenomenon is a welcome contribution. "Killswitch" discusses the origins and history of the Senatorial filibuster, which, as portrayed in the iconic movie "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" is the right of any United States Senator, as long as he or she remains standing and does not stop talking for a break, to talk his head off, as Jimmy Stewart famously put it. The practice, a vestige of southern power in the Jim Crow culture, was originated by southern conservative Senators as a means to delay or derail civil rights legislation. A great deal of attention is being paid to filibustering now, because the technique has been used with increasing frequency over the past few years, not to merely kill obviously bad legislation as in former time, but as a means to totally stop the agenda of the party in power by the minority party.The filibuster, as an instrument of legislation, or actually legislation blocking, has perhaps outlived its usefulness, much like the spread of disinformation, which arguably never has been useful in any way.And arguably, the possession of much of the world's very limited amount of land in the hands of private interests, for private benefit only, is also becoming an anachronism, and will someday come to an end, for the benefit of all.